One (1) of the foremost responsibilities of caring for a domestic pet is that of allowing the pet to go to the bathroom. For many indoors animals, this requires either providing a designated bathroom area for the pet or allowing them to go outdoors at regular intervals. In many cases, this activity is undertaken several times every day.
A prominent inconvenience with most methods of allowing a pet to go to the bathroom is that the pet is prone to subsequently track substantial amounts of dirt and other foreign materials around the indoors of the domicile. Litter boxes and the like are rife with small bits of material which cling to a pet easily and are subsequently scattered about ground surfaces. Allowing a pet to go outdoors in order to go to the bathroom can result in the pet tracking dirt, moisture, and other foreign materials back into a house. This problem is particularly aggravated during unfavorable weather such as rain and snow. As a result, a caretaker is relegated to either cleaning the domicile afterwards or spending time in a difficult effort to wash and dry the pet upon reentering the house.
Various attempts have been made to provide devices which help to prevent tracking of dirt and foreign matter through a household by a pet. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,352, issued in the name of Ebert, describes a paw cleaning litter mat which comprises a plurality of inclined louvers in order to trap and retain cat litter or the like prior to subsequent scattering throughout a domicile.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,160, issued in the name of Wheelwright, describes a paw cleaning apparatus for animals which provides vibrating brushes in order to effect removal of foreign material from an animal's lower extremities.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,851,391, issued in the name of Mulich et al., describes a cylindrical apparatus for brushing a single animal paw and leg and removing debris via a suctioning of the cylinder upon removal of the pet's leg.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,111,585, issued in the name of Hale et al., describes a paw cleaning device which provides localized moistening of an animal's paws as the animal traverses the device, effecting removal of dirt and the like.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices depend upon the animal to engage the device, which results in inefficient use or necessary undesirable placement of the device within a domicile. Also, many such devices are uncomfortable or unpleasant for an animal to use. Furthermore, many such devices do not provide a sufficient level of cleaning to remove large amount of dirt and foreign material from a pet's paws. Accordingly, there exists a need for a pet paw and leg cleaning device without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.